Connecticut western news., 1887-10-19
CARRIER PIGEONS.
How They Are Utilized By Some
 New York Brokers.
Trained to Carry Messages to
 Brokers Country Homes.

"Oh, yes, several we'll known mon in the street use carrier pigeons to bring them messages to their country homcs," said Alfred dc Cordova to a reporter the other day. "Tll tell you how trained my birds to bring the stock quotations te my country place, Cheetolah,' two miles from the station at North Branch, N. J. About three years agor I bought four pair of 'squcclers.' or 'squabs, took them down to tho country and made them a comfortable coop. The birds were kept confined, but we'll fed and looked after for three weeks, when the window of their home was opened for themin order that they might go in and out at pleasure.
 The first thing they did was to go to the window and look out; next they would hop about until they were foot from their room. They recon noitcrcd and carefully observed every thing, and then they went in again. h a few minutes they would come out once moro and, I. could clearly see, with greater assurance. They flew on the roof, picked themselves, and played around till night time, when they went back, each to the identical place where it had been accustomed to roost. After several days, as soon as the birds were certain that they would not he molested, they commenced to take observations of my place, and, having thoroughly satisfied themselves that they were at home, they flew around in larger circles for a mile or two.
 The next step was to take them on short trips, would put the pigeons in a large basket with the lid down, take them half mile from their coop, and libe ate them. They would fly straight up into the air, circle around, and then point right for home. The next fly of the birds would be about mile, then two miles, four miles, ten miles, and fifteen miles. I trained them by stages until they flew twenty, thirty, fifty, seventy | five, and one hundred and twenty five | miles.
 | After that found no training was necessary. If a bird does not get lost while undergoing this schooling it is just-as apt to fly 800 miles without being lost. finally brought my reliable birds to my office in New York and sent them back to my farm in North Branch. The distance is some forty-three mllcs, but they arrived safe and sound.
 Since then have frequently rcmaine d at the farm and sent my birds to the office by the porter of the train, and dur ing the day my clerk sent bird after bird back to mo With half-hourly quota tions attached to it's tail. The time the birds take to deliver their messages from Wall street to Chcctolah is from fifty minutes to one hour and twenty minutes Before had the birds I found that a telegram from New York would take two hours time to reach mo, and longer if the operators were just at their lunch or engaged in filtration.
 My pigeon lofts are divided into the breeding and the working section. have attached an electric wire from my working loft to my house. So the mo- ment a bird comes home from Wall street and tries to get in at the window of the cot it rings an electric bell in the house and go over and get the mes sage.
 ''I have had some queer experiences with, carrier pigeons. Their ways arc as hard to predict as the weather. Birds that have repeatedly flown from 25O te $50 miles have failed to return home il practice flies of fifty to sixty miles. have known birds to be as long as month from home and then suddenly turn up as serenely as though there had been nothing unusual about their trip.' T New York Sun.